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The Ledgers of Baldr: 4E460-4E471
Actions Ashelani Looking directly upward at the new celestial body, the hivemind is filled with fear and apprehension. The Hivemother's first response is to raise another army, to protect her children from any threats that could descend upon them. Once hatched, they begin their silent patrol of the Ashelani jungle, one eye locked on the sky all the while. (raise army x1) In a similar panic, the Hivemother calls for a new era of Ashelani expansion, so that they might have tunnels to retreat through in a worst case scenario. Throughout the two hive nodes, a great rumbling is felt. After their long period of enhancement by Queen Scholus, the young chuteworms begin to shake their way out of dormancy, and exit their incubation pods. Their journey outwards will mark their first steps in a lifetime of service to the hive. From their chambers the worms push outwards, leaving great tunnels through the earth, ones that would take months for drones to complete. Now they are completed almost instantly. The hivemind compels them to push west, towards the Fissure, where their heads will form the new focuses of hive activity. Obediently the worms course through the land, paying no heed to dirt, rock or sand in the quest to obey their adoptive mother. Every so often, one of their great segmented legs will burst forth from the ground and be hacked open by Ashelani, allowing them to access the worms' inner transport system. The lands east of the fissure are similar in many ways to the original Ashelani jungles, but are filled with strange, unconnected Ashelani who, compared to the Hive, are meek and silent. These natives are pushed away from the central nodes and if found, eaten. All in all, three worms are sent westward to ensure a strong future for the hive. (expansion x3) Stavengar As rivaling nations mass their armies a short distance from the cities of Stavengar and Ilion, the senate votes to raise two legions, reinstating Legio I and Legio IV. The city squares are filled with recruits filtering in from the countryside as they make their way through the long process of registration, before reporting to the newly constructed supply depots for outfitting. (Raise armies 1 & 2) Dwarven blacksmiths continue work on the adamantium armor, but are now going in a different direction. Instead of attempting to make full plate, they go instead for lighter protection, focusing on shoulder and knee pads, helmets, and a breastplate, hoping that by limiting the number of angles needed in the armor, it will be easier to produce a full set. (Mil tech 3) One of the numerous refugees from the Reich, an orc by the name of Thrask, also works to help the military. By altering a family invention developed hundreds of years ago, a simple snare designed to aid in the capture of boars for domestication, he soon comes up with a new version which can be launched from Stavengaran siege engines. Large bags of twisted rope, heavy weights, and tar, these snares almost immediately stop all enemy progress around the point of impact. He names them Reich-tangles. (Mil tech 4) Derult Carefully eyeing the arms race on Ardunne, GE001 makes a rather predictable request for more boots on the ground. However, he is stymied by construction restraints from Irontown, as the burden of making spare and replacement parts for the existing Derultian armies has begun to limit production capacity. Instead, before he orders the withdrawal from Legaros he makes an offer to the restless crowds in Haven: enlist in the Derultian army and earn the chance to become a Derultian citizen, or stay and be consumed by hunger. He privately hopes not too many humans accept; he doubts they would last long in the desert and he's not sure they're strong enough to carry autocannons (Raise Army x2). Even so, he supposes its worth investing some research in equipping these new Derultian auxiliaries. He commissions the production of Derultian plate-style armor, but made of aluminum instead of steel for lightness (Military Tech x2). Gojac continues busily on Recollections From the Age of Bones. (Isaac does not, however. 1: culture) He does not leave his study except for inspiration walks. At the biannual planning meeting, Gojac's seat is filled by Abbadon, who is making the meeting generally unbearable. Garma and Kellus become quite pissed when Abbadon rudely reminds them that they have no navy when every other nation is across water. Garma and Kellus begrudgingly build boats. Garma has to remind Kellus how to build a boat, neither of them having touched one in two centuries. (2&3: navy) Rucahn sees the Hunger on Liosa's west coast, which he's been meaning to deal with. Rucahn goes to the edge of the Hunger and extends the field along the border to make sure it doesn't poison the beautiful Mahrat mountain ranges. (4: expand) Mu'lakka From the desk of Kal'rog: Request to allocate funds for construction attempts in the outer isles: APPROVED (Expansion 1&2) Request to introduce Time-Share programs in Liosa for interested customers: APPROVED (Tourism 3) Permission requested by fishing gang to chase down rumors of great sea monster: APPROVED (Big Kahuna 4) Legaros In the ruined, burned, and bloodied city of Haven, Tha'r'olk reaches out to any remaining refugees, and begins to reform the Legaran Nation. His first order, after clearing, burying, and burning as many bodies as could be found, is to refloat whatever small boats can be found in the harbor, and for any and all remaining fishermen to gather as many fish as possible, for sustenance and trade value alike (Income 1+2). The Order of the Fungus, having been nearly annihilated during what is now being called the Culling of the Fools, has seen a resurgence, due to the sudden and seeming inevitable encroachment of the dreaded Hunger. The Fungal Priests now roam the streets, preaching the salvation brought by the oncoming tide of spores. (Culture 3). Meanwhile, far to the Northwest, Jona's hunt continues. Unaware of any changes or damage to his distant homeland, his hunt for the Kahuna presses on. He's getting closer. The hunt is almost at an end. (Big Kahuna 4) Kaz'ur Ambassadors are sent to numerous foreign countries, in an attempt to influence a number of separate policies. See results. Results: The Ashelani Dominion: 8, 14, 20, 22 Army-building efforts are outstripped by the upsurge in expansion this season. The arrival of the red planet in the sky is wreaking havoc on the tides and coastlines of the world, and several coastal hive cities that were underground just on the shore have been flooded with seawater, forcing the relocation of several drones and breeding pods. Human slaves are left behind to drown in their enclosures while the rest of your population evacuates. A huge push inland, driven by the fascinating worms for which your people are so famous, lands Ashelani as far west as they have ever been—past even the Palace of Dreams, and now sharing a border with Kaz’ur (-30 wealth, +5 income, +7 income, +8 income). Negations of course have allowed the Ashik to keep the fort—as it serves both a research purpose as well as acting as a sort of cultural icon. The three nations of Ardunne, for the first time, all share a common border along the fissure and are all contiguous to one another. Stavengar: 15, 17, 3, 17 Legios I and IV have been reinstated. Their old muster houses in Stavengar had been torn down, and salt pillars had been worked into the earth where the buildings once stood. New mustering houses are built in Ilion for both regiments, and Legio IV has become synonymous with the new city itself and taken on new southern attire and regimental dress (-20 income). As far as armor production goes, adamantine armor has only been issued to commanders, while the rest of your forces are still outfitted in mithral, the vastly inferior world standard for armor, except in Derult, where robots still wear steel plating. The new entangling technologies provide an advantage to your armies, which are more tactically suited to holding positions and escaping through tunnels, and anything to slow the enemy advance meshes in very well (+3 military). Derult: 18, 8, 17, 12 The first-ever Derultian auxiliary fighting force is mustered from willing refugees from Haven and the surrounding countryside. Non-rusted officers oversee conscripted humans, dwarfs, and Ignati in a force five times the size of a normal Derultian regiment. Unable to withstand the blistering desert sun, they are shipped back by train to a dimly-lit disembarking station underneath Central, where tinfoil signs and billboards proudly and nonsensically proclaim in different languages: “FREE WATER AND NUTRIENTS FOR MEMBERS OF THE DERULTIAN UNION AUXILIARY CORPS.” Many of the men are unsure what exactly Derult is or what it is fighting for, and simply joined to avoid becoming casualties in the war for Legaros. Central is currently manufacturing educational broadcasts to play to the men and keep them moralized, and, unbeknownst to the men, spending a fortune on water to keep them alive. Meanwhile, the humans, who are closest proportionally to Derultians, are being fitted for face-obscuring armor. It is quite snug and fits together well, but interior temperature is still a problem. Derultian command has decided to relegate them to a support role and occasionally deploy in underground combat (+4 military). The Halls of the Five: 3, 11, 18, 12 Gojac had always fancied himself many things: an artist, a sculptor, but not so much a writer. On one hand, he had pursued creative expression as the epitome of creation, which he believed he should exemplify, but on the other hand, engineering a rodent that grew toenails instead of fur had a sort of breathless excitement that came with it, an excitement that he couldn’t find when he was putting pen to paper. He sits in his study and doodles for days on end, conjuring up the occasional cup of coffee whenever he finds himself teetering dangerously on the edge of productivity. Meanwhile, Abbadon, awakening to find another global arms buildup, directs the mustering of a new navy. A hundred icebergs Altered from the cold sea waves by Kellus bob along the shore, occasionally gliding seamlessly into and out of formation (-10 income). It won’t be enough, Garma fears. An effort is made to seek out Rucahn, but he has ventured up north to stop the spread of the Hunger and cannot be located. The Inquirer stares up into the sky at the red planet that has altered the tides and made the day cycles irregular and unpredictable. Unable to see the future, he turns back to the road ahead. (+4 income, -10 wealth). The Mu’lakka Lands: 11, 6, 9, 1 The arrival of an entirely new planet in the sky has halted all activity in your nation. Battered ruins of ships still wash into port daily, caught unawares by the change in the tides. Of course, sailors are being sent out to some of the tinier islands to find out who all there is still alive, or even if there are islands where there used to be anymore. At alternating times each day, water from the port rises high enough to flood into the downtown streets of your capital, causing mass inconvenience. Up north, in the area around the Horn of Manuk, the seas have been so fierce that sailors who were planning on shipping olive crop south have had to rely on the much more expensive and unreliable method of airship transport to get their goods to market, putting many out of a job and even causing the Rak’min Holding Conglomerate to report quarterly losses for the first time in ten years. With all the superstition surrounding Mu’lakkan lifestyle, Kal’rog has been publicly paying visit to shrines left and right in an earnest attempt to prove that he’s not, as the opposition claims, some kind of “evil, profit-stealing ghost.” No word, meanwhile, on the whereabouts of the crack exploratory team sent to find the Big Kahuna. To make matters worse, the obscure and needlessly vocal religious minority that considers the fish to be their God have taken offense and filed suit against the Rak’min Holding Conglomerate and its subsidiaries, which include the Mu’lakkan national government and the Mu’lakkan armed forces. The matter was settled out of court, the plaintiffs were paid an undisclosed sum (-30 wealth), and suffice it to say the Church of the Ever-Wrathful Big Kahuna now has enough money to purchase its own private island, which they have of course gone ahead and actually done. Legaros: 15, 12, 19, 15 The Hunger, for some unknown reason, does not advance any further than it has, stopping in its tracks one day for no apparent reason. Reports around the world indicate that the fungus is still spreading, just not in Legaros. Tha’r’olk, in these trying times, is elected leader of the struggling and recently defeated nation. At a time when the country is seemingly at death’s door, fishermen are sent out to restore life to a nation currently struggling with its identity. They don’t manage to find much, (+7 income) but the industry is currently revitalized. The rise of the new planet in the sky is interpreted as a good omen in Legaran culture, unlike in the rest of the world, as it correlates roughly to the day the Hunger stopped moving. The Order of the Fungus, no longer persecuted but still looked upon by the majority of the populace with revulsion, has finally fully transitioned back to the mainland. The old Church District where their grand cathedral once stood over a hundred years ago has long since been blown to smithereens in the bombardment, and as such a new house of worship is being built further inland outside the old walls (+3 culture). Derultians have handed over power to Tha’r’olk without incident and have long since left after strip-mining the surrounding earth bare of any peat or minerals. In a swathe around Haven for miles, forests have been cut down and fields have been laid to waste to make room for enormous, high-powered drilling rigs. What the robots are drilling for, Tha’r’olk does not know, but he has the assurances of Central that the constructs will be dismantled within a few years’ time. Hundreds of Legarans, disloyal or disillusioned with their country, have boarded on trains bound north through Mu’lakkan territory into Derult, the mysterious northern nation that has so easily imposed its will upon your people. As Jola watches, a pair of enormous fins emerge from the water on each side of his boat, unfolding into beautiful yet delicate red and blue patterned sails before sinking into the ocean again. The impossibly huge fish had been swimming underneath him for several days now, scoping out his vessel, drawn to his flute music. In the crystal clear water of the south seas, he can see it clearly enough to get several sketches. The old illustrations were wrong. This thing was a marvel, unlike any fish he had ever seen. Long and silky fins of mottled crimson and caramel trail in the water behind it as it moves, like a robe of some kind, and, unlike other fish, its fins emerge periodically from the depths. The body, he notices, is flatter than that of a typical fish and sort of arrow-shaped. Jola is pleased when he takes the rudder in one hand and turns his boat around, and hears the whirling sound underwater of the Big Kahuna turning around to follow his music. He’s not sure of the applications that the fish will serve, to be honest, but his success in catching it has left him ecstatic. (Once you tell me what the Kahuna is going to be used for, I’ll decide what bonus it gives you). Kaz’ur: 1, 16, 10, 3 Of the four Ashik who left for faraway lands that day, only one was met with good fortune. The Shahadash’s trade mission to the Mu’lakkan islands was incredibly successful, and economic ties between your two nations have grown (+3 income to trade between you and Mu’lakka. Mu’lakka also receives this bonus). There’s no such luck for the other two heads of state, though. Jasura, the current Sawmanji, was met in Derult with no fanfare and was made to wait in line with hundreds of other foreign dignitaries at the train station in Central. When she was finally granted audience with a representative, the robot quizzically cocked its head at the idea of being offered military secrets from a foreign power and babbled into its radio transmitter for a long while. “After deliberation,” the… thing says in rusty Ashik “we have decided not to accept your offer. Train fare back to the east coast will be provided for you.” The hot-blooded Ashik stormed out of the small metal room in a stormy mood, not wishing to look upon another Derultian for a while. At first, she had thought these people would be like her own species, but as she spent more time among them she realized that they could not be more different. Even the ones who claimed to be able to show emotion often acted callously and self-interestedly. As for the Hajin, he was treated with derision when he arrived in the lands of the Five, and his mission to relate to them proved impossibly harder than he had hoped. The Destroyer, he had learned, did not like being told that his demeanor was “surly,” “generally unpleasant,” and “could use a wash.” The Hajin is so depressed by his failure to connect with these wizards on the most basic level that he has taken leave from world affairs for a while (the first action of your next turn will be conducted with a -5 penalty). Category:The Ledgers of Baldr